Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 6 in F, Op. 10, No.2

Don't judge a piece of music by its popularity or ascribed importance or lack there of.

If there’s anything that my colleagues have known about me, it’s that I’m a huge Beethoven fan. In undergrad I was known for my epic rants on the merits of his Third Symphony “Eroica”, and the spirit of defiance and overcoming that pervades the entire piece. I was even selected by one of my professors to give a half an hour presentation on the piece in our composition seminar. I could speak for hours about his methods of developing material or the beauty of his late string quartets.

Naturally when Francisco Vilar, a close friend and pianist at UdK Berlin, whom I’ve known for over ten years, since our Royal College of Music days, was seeking advice on playing a Beethoven sonata, he decided to give me a call. For Francisco, playing Beethoven doesn’t come as easily or intuitively as other composers such as Debussy or Chopin do to him. To overcome this, he labels the emotional shifts of the piece to help him manage these abrupt changes in tone and affect that Beethoven is known for. He asked me to listen to the piece he was working on, Sonata no. 6 in F and give him a word to describe the opening.

Upon hearing the opening chords of the first phrase, and how it slowly blossomed, the first word that came to mind was “shy”. This took Francisco by surprise. Shy was not a word that he had associated with Beethoven. “Coy” maybe, but never “shy”. The piece opens as if it is shyly announcing its presence before gradually branching out over the phrase. The ending of the second phrase continues with Beethoven’s trademark aggression as it abruptly changes temperament. The second theme then begins trudging along heavily yet gracefully.

Still unsure about how to interpret the piece, Francisco then told me to listen to the rest of the piece. What I found was a fine piece of music. This sonata doesn’t share the fame of the first Sonata or of the “Pathetique” sonata, just two sonatas later. It’s one of those pieces that people just know of because it exists in between the numbers of the “great” sonatas.

Admittedly, I had never given this small sonata the time of day. We sometimes fall victim to giving importance to certain pieces over others, and seeing the lesser-known works as “lesser” works. Not much is known about this piece or the sonatas in the collection of op. 10. There’s not much biographical importance. There’s no story or programmatic title that tells us what to think or how to interpret it. There’s just the dedication to the patron and the music itself - nothing more. Amusingly, on the website Classical and Sacrum, on their analysis of the piece, in the area designated “interesting facts”, they state,

“The sixth sonata has earned a reputation as one of Beethoven's least important sonatas”.

For all intents and purposes, it seems that this piece has earned the consensus of unimportance. Just as Classical and Sacrum eventually conclude though, I too agree that this piece despite this, is a fine contribution to the piano repertoire. It still is, after all, a sonata composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. I can hear echoes of the “Appassionata” sonata in the second theme, and the “Waldstein” sonata in the third movement.

This piece has the hallmarks of moments and ideas that he would be lauded for in later pieces. For example, one of the biggest highlights of the “Eroica” symphony, is how rigorous he is with developing his material. He doesn’t just treat the main themes as material to transform. He pulls from transitional material that one would assume simply exist out of convention and are there to move between sections and lead to cadences.

Sonata form is essentially an A-B-A form in the guise of a formal essay. It historically was defined by its harmonic movement throughout, which over time became formalized. The first A, which is formally referred to as the exposition, has two sections in contrasting keys. In this case, the first theme is in F and the second is in C. The exposition then ends in the key of C. The B section, or the development explores or “develops” the material presented in the exposition before returning to the A section in what is called the recapitulation. One of the hallmarks of the recapitulation though is that the second theme is presented in the home key, in this case F major before concluding in F major.

Beethoven muddies this form by extending transitional material between the touchstones of the form. In this sonata this occurs after the second theme. This transitional material isn’t random though, as it’s based on the ideas from the first theme. I say ideas instead of “melodies” because Beethoven’s notion of a theme can just be two chords, as it is in this sonata. It’s a bit more abstract than what we would traditionally consider a “theme”. Aside from being a hallmark of the Germanic tradition of composition of rigorously and efficiently developing a piece of music, from the days of Bach (which could veer into the esoteric in its complexity), to Haydn passed all the way down to Beethoven, this provides this particular sonata with a satisfying sense of unity. It gives the feeling of eating a dish that has only the best and most essential ingredients. No additives, nothing outside the recipe, nothing that isn’t strictly necessary. Just good clean eating.

And that’s how I feel about this sonata overall. It’s like having a Caprese Salad with the best tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oil. Yes, a lot of work may have gone into producing these ingredients, but the moment they all come together in the salad, their simplicity can obscure that. This kind of dish may not stick out amongst other well-known and more loved dishes. It doesn’t have the fame of pizza, but it is nonetheless satisfying! The sixth sonata is the product of a composer who is confidently stepping into his prime abilities as both a composer and pianist but isn’t out to change the world in everything he does…yet. Sometimes we just need something good and simple.